Temporary Foreign Workers

I posted a recent thread regarding one of Canada's six big nationwide banks laying off a substantial portion of their IT staff and bringing in temporary foreign staff to be trained to do their work.

The original story had it that 45 were being laid off ..

... but when the Big Boy from that Big Bank came on to explain, he said that they were trying to find places for the laid off staff to be absorbed into other areas of the work of the bank ... which is not quite the same as being "laid-off".

The rules are that Temporary Foreign Workers are to be brought in only for work that Canadians can't do, or they can't find Canadians to do. Only one or two are to be here for an extended period ... the others are here only for a short while, to be trained in how the work is done ... then are to return to India, to do it there.

In which case ... as far as I'm concerned, the workers for the IT company abroad can't get a work permit for their staff to come here to be trained, they can train 'em wherever else they like ... but not here.

At a coal mine in northeastern B.C, owned by a Chinese (government-related?) company, the company claims that they've complied with all of the rules, and are getting permission to bring in some 200 Chinese workers who are skilled in a certain type of coal mining.

The rule is that they can pay 15% less than for comparable Canadian workers.

Some Canadian workers were complaining on the radio that they were fully qualified, and had applied, but that it was evident that the company was not interested in them.

Some say (hearsay?) that the working language a that mine is to be Mandarin ... in which situation it would be difficult to find such skilled Canadian workers to qualify.

Our national radio has a province-wide phone-in weekdays at noon, and they found something of a firestorm developing, with many angry workers claiming that such things are happening in their work areas, as well.

Some people were saying that they'd withdraw their money from that bank ... but the others are doing the same game.

So I suggested that they check out whether their financial needs could be met by a credit union, which is smaller, usually community-based, and concerned for their employees, and move their money there.

I believe that kind of "funny business" is happening here in the US, too. Yes, get foreign workers cheaper. . . . I belong to 2 credit unions - - and have a new, great rate mortgage from the out - of - town one we've belonged to for 15 yrs. (even when we moved 1000 miles away, we kept the contact.)